blue72beetle

E-Fest 2010

2010-02-02T18:41:00.000-08:00

E-Fest was a blast. Got a lot of flying in.

Great Christmas Gifts

2009-12-27T19:34:00.001-08:00

Something for the Bus, and something to suck money out of my wallet.

No more Paramount

2009-12-18T18:20:00.000-08:00

And the Paramount has sold. It will be missed, but I'm glad it's new owner will take care of it.

Bus Progress

2009-11-10T19:06:00.000-08:00

Got more work done on the bus engine. Slowly tearing it down, things are looking decent.

Flamingo

2009-11-01T18:15:00.000-08:00

This is this weeks Schwinn find, in all it's pink glory. Two neat stories about this bike. In 1977 Schwinn introduced this color, calling it Flamingo. People in the 70's must have hated it, because after a few months Schwinn discontinued it. Now any Flamingo colored '77 Schwinn is fairly hard to come across.

I bought this bike from it's original owners. In '77 or '78 they won it in a contest while they were living in Chicago. They picked it up at Sumbaum's Cycle Co, Joliett, Ill. The shop sticker is still on the seat tube. Over 30 years later, and it's still in great shape. I've been looking for a nice 5 Speed Twinn to replace our single speed, and this one is just about perfect.

Last Trip, 2009

2009-10-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

Went to the Indy VW Show today. This was probably the last trip with the VW for 2009. We left at 6am with freezing temps, and froze our way to Kokomo. Met up with some friends in the Kokomo club and caravaned (more freezing) down to Lebanon for the Circle City VW Club Volkstoberfest. Did I mention the Beetle has no heat? Cold day, but fun.

Kokomo Oktoberfest 2009

2009-09-27T15:09:00.000-07:00

Oktoberfest was rainy but the turn out was good. Had somewhere around 80 cars. We went on a cruise the next day to a Grist Mill and Covered Bridge. As always, the Beetle performed flawlessly, adding about 260 miles over the weekend.

More pictures here:

http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f343/blue72beetle/Oktoberfest%2009/

And here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/75317872@N00/sets/

More Tomato Goodness

2009-09-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

My trip to Alpena Michigan kept me away from mountain biking for a few weeks. Now I'm back, and with a sweet new Homegrown! Well, as new as a bike from 1998 can be. It's already dirty, Franke Park was a little muddy last night.
The Fort Wayne Velo Sport club meets at Franke Park (by the BMX track) every Monday night, ride starts at 6:30. We also do some riding around town on Thursday nights.

Old Fort VW Club show 09

2009-08-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

The OFVWC 2009 show was fun. We came with our club, The City of Firsts VW Club, from Kokomo. Got to see friends again, and enjoyed the hot hot day.
And yes, that's a LEGO Beetle on my hood. More people were interested in that than in my car.
More pictures here.

1950 Paramount

2009-08-09T17:59:00.001-07:00

I'm finally a Schwinn Paramount owner! It's not a racing Paramount, it's a Tourist model. From what research I've done, this is a pretty rare bicycle. Possibly worth up to 10 times what I paid for it, and I got a sweet deal.

It rides very very nice, and is in outstanding shape. Not sure what I'm going to to with it for now. I think I'll hang onto it for awhile. I may try to trade it for a racing Paramount or something similar in the future.

In Flight Emergency

2009-07-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went out to the field for some relaxed Mustang and Corsair flying. While flying the Corsair, it came time to land, and the landing gear wouldn't go down! I cycled the switch a few times, did some jerky maneuvers, but no gear. So with no other choice but to belly land, I made a few slow passes to get a feel for how it'll handle. Final pass, I came in low and slow, chopped the throttle at the last second and settled to a stop. No damage, other than what was already there. I was very surprised I managed to save it, I must be getting better.

As soon as I took the wing off I found the problem. An O-ring in the control box was moving too far out and leaked all the air out in the up position. Never had done that before, guess it needs an adjustment.

For more pictures go HERE.

19 July 2009

2009-07-19T17:14:00.000-07:00

Pulled the engine out of the bus today. Now I need to get another floor jack so I can get the bus up higher!

Sunday Morning Ride

2009-07-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

Minnesota Ron was back in town this week, so we took him out for a tour of Fort Wayne's River Greenway system. Ron, Gordon, other Ron, and myself all rode our vintage Schwinns. I rode my 81 Le Tour, Ron rode his 81 Le Tour (an exact match to mine), Gordon rode his yellow Super Sport, and Minnesota Ron brought his Paramount.

I want a Paramount now. His bike is just plain awesome. It wasn't the top Schwinn lightweight for nothing. Better start saving my money. Here are some pics from the cheap camera, didn't feel like lugging my big one around for 30 miles.

Fathers Day in the Park

2009-06-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

Traveled down to Kokomo again for another car show that the City of Firsts VW Club was participating in. Sunday's show was hosted by the Central Indiana Classic Chevy Club, and all makes and models were welcome. We made sure the Kokomo VW Club was well represented, and showed up with plenty of VW's. It sure was fun, made new friends and had a blast. Pictures can be seen on our club's Flickr account here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/75317872@N00/sets/72157620355131472/

VW Funfest 2009

2009-06-12T13:24:00.001-07:00

Funfest 2009 in Effingham Illinois was a blast. I drove the Beetle down with the City of Firsts VW Club from Kokomo, and camped with them. I had so much fun with them and they were so welcoming that I joined their club. The total mileage for the trip was 600 miles. The Bug did it with no problems at all. I even got pulled over on the way home, bonus points to anyone that can guess why.

Hopefully I'll get to bring the Bus next year and camp in that. Here are just a few pictures from the weekend, many more can be seen here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/75317872@N00/sets/72157619530357337/

Funfest 2009

2009-06-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

This weekend I'll be driving the Beetle down to Mid America's Volkswagen Funfest 2009, in Effingham Illinois. Plans include a Road Tour Friday night, car show all day Saturday and heading back home Sunday. I'll be camping on the show grounds. Looks like weather should be nice, hopefully the Bug will make it just fine.

http://www.funfestacvw.com/

New Radio

2009-03-22T12:18:00.001-07:00

A few months ago I had bought an original radio from a guy that restores old VW radios. It wasn't cheap, considering it's only AM/FM, but it sure is nice and looks cool too. I finally got around to installing it, and the old original speaker works too. As if driving a classic car isn't nostalgic enough, listening to oldies from a 5 inch dash speaker is even more so.

Start of a new season

2009-03-17T16:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I got the Beetle out for the first time this year! I'm expecting a nice long season of classic VW driving and shows. I wouldn't hold my breath for the Bus though. It may be awhile for that, as there's lots of work I want to do to it first.

F-16 Flight

2009-03-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

Guess who got to fly in an F-16...... twice. Yep, that's me.

New Toy

2009-02-21T15:23:00.001-08:00

Once again, I love this economy. You can find so many things for cheap when businesses need money badly! Thanks to Circuit City's downfall, I now have a dSLR camera that I've always wanted.

I've been reading about how to use this thing, and about dSLR photography in general. This will be one tough thing to figure out. Sometimes I'm more confused than when I started. But I'll figure it out eventually.

Go Westy!

2009-01-30T16:05:00.000-08:00

Finally, a dream of mine came true. I drove home a VW Westfalia Camper Bus. My favorite year, 1979. Maybe not my favorite color, I would have preferred Green or Orange, but Beige is growing on me. Now both my VW's have the same initials, Blue Beetle, and Beige Bus!

This is gonna be fun, fixing it up and going camping.

21 Jan 2009

2009-01-21T15:01:00.001-08:00

Well, I was going to ride my motorcycle to work today, but when I got up it was still cold and snowy outside. Summer and warm weather and peace on earth didn't happen like everyone thought it would! I couldn't find a rainbow and pot of gold in my front yard either. The only change I found was in my pocket.

Manta Ray Progress

2009-01-19T13:55:00.000-08:00

Made some more progress on the Manta Ray. I'm almost done with it now.

I've realized that this blog has mostly turned out to be about my bikes, not the Beetle or even RC airplanes. I was considering creating a seperate blog for each of my hobbies, but it is winter after all and the Beetle isn't doing anything. When the weather gets better and I get the car out I'm sure I'll have plenty to post about it. As for my RC airplanes, I'll leave that to my blog on RCGroups.

Early Christmas

2008-12-07T17:39:00.000-08:00

A nice 1965 Deluxe Typhoon, and a nearly perfect 1972 Ladies Collegiate. A little bit of cleaning, and these things will be sparkling.

Make it a very Merry Christmas

2008-11-28T09:16:00.000-08:00

Insist on genuine... Schwinn Bikes... World's Finest

It seems to have become a tradition to put up our Christmas stuff the night of Thanksgiving. I'm all about taking holidays one at a time (i.e. no Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving!) but after suppertime the holiday's over anyway.

It also seems to have become a tradition to have a neat little bike display too. Last year I had my 63 Typhoon out with a bow, but that bike is gone now. This year is even better, with a super awesome Schwinn Dealership Christmas poster, my 61 Panther III and the little Pixie.

Octoberfest Video

2008-11-14T16:37:00.000-08:00

I just found this video someone made of the Kokomo Octoberfest. You can see my car right at about the 2:55 mark, just on the left, there's someone walking in front of it. That's about it. Guess my car isn't much of a movie star.

Still, it's a very cool video.

Ron from Minnesota visits

2008-11-10T12:02:00.000-08:00

Fellow bike collector and now good friend Ron G. visited yesterday. I really enjoyed showing him my collection, and going out to look at other bikes. Unfortunately the weather was lousy and we didn't go for a ride. Maybe next spring.

Evergreen Park, IL

2008-11-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

So there's a sticker on my Grey Ghost that says it was sold from a bike shop called 'Park Bike Shop, Evergreen, IL'. I tried finding a website for the shop to see if it was still there. I couldn't find anything. Then I got on Google Maps and did the street view thing since the address was on the sticker. Lo and behold, there is still a Schwinn Shop at that location! At least there is still a Schwinn sign hanging out front. I think someday I may take a trip and bring the Grey Ghost with me. A picture of the bike outside the shop it was originally sold at would be awesome.

Also picked up another rare bike project. 1971 Manta Ray. The Manta Ray was a bigger version of the popular Sting Ray bike, but wasn't very popular itself. They only made them in 1971 and 1972.

Sad Day

2008-10-27T11:28:00.001-07:00

Well I had to face the facts. There probably aren't going to be anymore nice days this year. So I put the Beetle away for hibernation.

Grey Ghost

2008-10-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

Just in time for Halloween, my Grey Ghost is almost finished. I especially like this bike for a number of reasons, most of all it's rarity. Schwinn produced the Grey Ghost only in 1971 as a coaster brake model (single speed, which this is) and a more popular 5 speed model. This bike has a build date of November 1970, which would make it one of the first one's produced for the 71 model year. Some lucky kid probably found it under the tree on December 25th, 1970.

Another thing which makes this bike rare is the rear wheel. Normally the rear wheels on these bikes have 2 rows of knurling all the way around. For some reason Schwinn made only one row of knurling in 71, making the one row wheels hard to find. The pedals are another thing. With all these one-year-only changes Schwinn did for 1971 models, they put white reflectors in the pedals. Luckily I found a set that is pretty worn out, to match the rest of the bike.

Since this bike is such a unique bike, I decided to not repaint the frame. A bike with all these chips and scratches will usually be more valuable to collectors as-is, rather than restored. Because the paint isn't perfect, I didn't have to search for perfect parts, making it much easier and cheaper to restore to it's former glory. I'm very happy with the way it's turning out, looking like a well worn survivor from 1971.

Messing around in Photoshop

2008-10-11T12:10:00.001-07:00

Just playing with some effects in PS.

Kokomo Octoberfest

2008-09-29T05:56:00.000-07:00

Well the Kokomo Octoberfest was a blast. The Bug did the trip just fine, no problems at all. Ended up with a little over 200 miles on the car, I was very proud of it.

Spin my bug

2008-09-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

So here's my 360 degree Bug! This was created for me by Caleb at http://www.spinmystuff.com Very Awesome. This is why I created this blog in the first place, to show this off.

Spin My Bug Here!

My Blog

2008-09-28T15:09:00.000-07:00

So I created a Blog. Even though I think blogs are dumb. I also think myspace, facebook, and all other things like that are dumb. But I love forums. I think forums are great. But anyway...
I created a blog to show off some stuff. I had a really neat thing made in flash that I want to show off.